Coin of the DayKYC just got a lot easier

is planning to issue digital identities that will allow people and businesses to engage in secure business transactions, as well as build a system of real-world trust networks. Verifying your identity through KYC (Know Your Customer) is surprisingly expensive, with many ICO teams choosing to store participants' confidential data on in-house computer systems (yikes). Using the NEO blockchain, Bridge will allow users to manage, protect, and use their own private information for ICOs, legal processes, and marketplaces.

Coinbase created crypto's response to PayPal (and it looks legit). But will people be able to part with their precious tokens?

It seems as though exchanges are ramping up their role in our everyday lives (or they're trying to). Coinbase is currently expanding into the payment industry, developing a BitPay competitor called Coinbase Commerce that will help merchants accept Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin. This service is global and comes about a month after it was announced that BitPay's European card issuer, WaveCrest Holdings Ltd, was told by Visa to sever its relationship with the crypto debit card. The payment enabler Stripe announced last month that they would end support for Bitcoin as well. When the crummy market recovers, we bet they'll have some serious FOMO, and an uphill battle against Coinbase. Litecoin is also releasing their own long-awaited payment processing startup, LitePay, which will be launching soon. The announcement prompted a 30% price increase of the token. Attaboy, Charlie.

Coinbase Commerce is receiving some pushback, with users perplexed as to why the exchange is adding a new aspect to their business, when other areas of Coinbase's current company, such as customer service or the growing transaction fees, could be improved instead. The company has already partnered with Shopify, an e-commerce site that hosts over 500,000 online merchants (it looks like Squarespace for digital retailers). The real question is if people will be willing to part with their hodled coins for purchases. Perhaps the company is setting the precedent for exchange growth. You're up, Bittrex.

The markets are finally seeing a substantial recovery after a wave of good news from South Korea (rejoice).

The good news spread far and wide yesterday was that South Korea's government revisited their previous decision regarding cryptocurrency trading. ICYMI, over 280,000 South Korean citizens signed a petition calling for the government to reassess their stringent laws on trading and to foster blockchain tech advancement. In a surprising turn of events (after several weeks of the country practically preparing for tight regulations), the Korean government decided to make crypto transparency a key focus of their nation-wide blockchain development, instead of banning it. Tl;dr: South Korea is keeping an open mind when it comes to crypto, which is beginning to show the connection between fear, tyrannical leadership (*cough cough* China) and cryptocurrency regulation.

With this news, Bitcoin is just a few hundred dollars away from passing the $10,000 benchmark. South Korea's also considering establishing a BitLiscense-style exchange approval system, that requires the companies to have a certain amount of capital and publishing quarterly financial reports. Go Korea, go!

Eager beaver: Coincheck users withdrew over $373 million after the exchange reopened. The level of trust post-hack is pretty low, and things are looking shaky for the company.